DJ Sotofett Presents Jesse - Twotinos

DJ Sotofett Presents Jesse - Twotinos
On all of his other records, DJ Sotofett was a "producer" in the dance music sense of the term: an artist who uses various tools to drum up fully-formed pieces of electronic music on his own. On Twotinos, a collaboration with the Finnish duo Jesse, he's a producer in a more old-fashioned, rock 'n' roll sense, acting as creative director to a group of live musicians who do most of the heavy lifting. The liner notes call him the "executive producer," and, in their track-by-track breakdown of who played what, make his contributions sound pretty hands-off—some percussion here, some additional FX there. Jesse, meanwhile, play live congas, guitars, drums, flutes, vocoders and a variety of synths, joined at times by extras named Hälinen and Kölle. The crew recorded the album at Haista II studio in Helsinki, then Sotofett added finishing touches at his own studio, Wania#1. The result is a spacey and sun-kissed LP released on the Sähkö sub-label Keys Of Life.

Twotism floats between two distant poles, with tropical ambience on one side and prog rock grandeur on the other. Sometimes it moves gradually from one to the other, sometimes it happens all at once. The album begins with "Fear Mix (Fearmix)," a 13-minute epic whose dusty rock groove only shows up after five minutes of wispy synths. "Orga Fit," with its daydreamy chords and strutting drums, sounds a bit like Air on The Virgin Suicides soundtrack. "Autiomaa (I) (Tribbal)" is the album's big kahuna, a slow-builder that reaches almost comical levels of tension leading up to the payoff (those divebomb synths are overkill in the best possible way). When that moment finally comes, though, in a blaze of live drums, heavy bass and ghostly vocoders, it certainly delivers.

The rest of the record leaves less of an impression. "Kuume (Last Gitar)" is sunny and upbeat, full of live guitars and yacht rock synths, but it sails by without any big hooks or blow-up moments. Of the ambient tracks, two are simple sketches of synths and hand percussion—"Desert Mix" and "Autiomaa (II) (Tribbal Sound Mix)." The other, "Puhallus (One Mo, Pad Conga Vocoder Mix)," is more fully realized, but just as subtle, a gentle drift of congas and vocoders.

All in all Twotism feels more off-the-cuff than considered—the result, one imagines, of a bunch of friends locking themselves in a studio and bashing out an album. But if that makes it a bit uneven, it also adds to its swagger. For something so unconventional, it has a striking air of confidence, as if ambient-disco-krautrock hybrids played on live instruments were nothing out of the ordinary. Only Sotofett and the artists in his orbit could pull off something like this so casually.